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Libertarianism has an alt-right problem. Many prominent leaders of the alt-right have, at some point, identified as libertarian. I am curious as to why?

Milo Yiannopoulos has billed himself (and has been billed by others) as libertarian. About a year ago, he came clean about that. According to Business Insider, the alt-right troll Tim Gionet (aka Baked Alaska) formerly identified as a carefree, easygoing libertarian who supported Kentucky Sen. Rand Pauls bid for the White House, firmly opposed the war on drugs, and championed the cause of Black Lives Matter

Gavin McInnes bills himself as a libertarian, but he founded the Proud Boysa mens rights group that is considered part of the alt-right. Augustus Invictus, a Florida attorney who literally drank goats blood as part of an animal sacrifice, ran for senate in the 2016 Libertarian Party primary and spoke at Liberty Fest. Recently popular among college libertarians, Stefan Molyneux evolved into a pro-Trump alt-righter. And Richard Spencer was thrown out of the International Students for Liberty conference this year after crashing the event.

It is also true that many of todays alt-righters are disaffected conservatives. However, there are many more conservatives in this country than there are libertarians, which suggests a disproportionate number of todays prominent alt-righters began as libertarians.

Its ironic that some of these people start off calling themselves libertarian, but they are the antithesis of everything that the libertarian project stands forwhich is cosmopolitanism versus parochialism, individualism vs. group identity, and libertarianism or autonomy versus authoritarianism, Nick Gillespie, editor in chief of Reason.com tells me.

Granted, there are a few similarities between the two groups. For example, paleoconservatives (think populist nationalists like Pat Buchanan) and libertarians both tend to be anti-interventionist in foreign policy. But there are also multiple contradictions Jeffrey A. Tucker, content director for the libertarian Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), lists five differences between the alt-right and libertarians). And yet, it seems observably true that libertarianism is disproportionately a gateway drug to the alt-right. Again, the question is why?

Some would explain this away as normal. People change ideologies all the time, David Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute, told me in an interview. Some libertarians become conservatives, some become welfarist liberals, a few drift into creepy extremes. Jason Kessler apparently was in Occupy Wall Street before he became an alt-right leader. The original neocons were leftists first. Hillary was a Goldwater Girl.

Speaking of Barry Goldwater, its also true that a principled libertarian like him might end up on the wrong side of civil rights issues simply because he fears the expansion of central government and prioritizes the freedom of business owners over the right of individuals to be served at a lunch counter. This conundrum has proven to be a vexing enough problem for libertarians to overcome. However, it does not fully explain the link between libertarianism and todays alt-right.

Like any emerging ideology, the alt-right didnt just materialize out of nowhere. There were forerunners crying in the wilderness who were generally viewed as harmless kooks. The paleo-libertarian seed that Ron Paul, Murray Rothbard, and Lew Rockwell planted in the 1990s has come to bear some really ugly fruit in the last couple of years as elements of the alt-right have made appearances in various libertarian organizations and venues, writes Steve Horwitz, an economist who writes at Bleeding Heart Libertarians.

The Ron Paul Revolution might not have amounted to much electorally, but it would be wrong to underestimate the impact he has had on libertarianism and the alt-right. In a way, Ron Paul is the guy who lit the fuse, Nick Gillespie says. And he embodies some of those contradictions [between libertarianism and the alt-right]. Gillespie tells me that Richard Spencer came up to him at the Republican National Convention in 2016 and said that he was activated into politics because of Paul. Gillespie sees Pauls legacy as very mixed, as someone who was simultaneously positing this very libertarian worldview, but then hes also speaking to peoples fears and anxieties. If one were looking for the missing link to explain this phenomenon, Ron Paul (and his paleolibertarian allies) would be a good place to start.

Still, my guess is that this has as much to do with attitude as it has to do with ideology. One explanation for why young libertarians metastasize into alt-righters is self-selection bias. Some of the people drawn to libertarianism are predisposed to be seduced into the alt-right. In this regard, they are merely passing through a libertarian phase. Libertarianism is an unpopular view. And it takes particular personality typesto be open to taking unpopular views, explains Kevin Vallier, an associate professor of philosophy at Bowling Green State University, who writes for the blog Bleeding Heart Libertarians. Someof these personality types are people who are open to new experience, love the world of ideas and have a disposition for independent thought. However, some of these personality types simplyenjoy holding outrageous and provocative views, who like to argue and fight with others, who like insult and shock. Vallier continued, The worst flaw in the contrarian trap is that it makes libertarians open to views thatdeserveto be unpopular and despised, including the thinly-veiled racism of the sort Hans Hermann Hoppe trades in from time to time. (Note: Some see Hoppes support of what he calls a pro-European immigration bias as an example of thinly-veiled racism.)

As a political philosophy, libertarianism is somewhat unique in its unflinching support of free speech. In some cases, this free speech is unsavory. If youre anti-political correctness, libertarianism might seem like a good place to landeven if you dont buy into the whole libertarian philosophy. This affinity for libertarianism wears off when they realize that were principled, that no, were not just trolling, says Gillespie.

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David Boaz provided yet another explanation. Some people may become libertarians because theyre angry, Boaz says. For a while, its enough to be angry at the government. But ultimately libertarianism is about peaceful cooperationmarkets, civil society, global trade, peaceso it just isnt angry enough for some people. Racial intolerance is a way to be angry at the whole world. And I think you hear that in some of the alt-right types.

The most recent example of this transformation is Christopher Cantwell, who has garnered 15 minutes of infamy by virtue of appearing in that viral Vice documentary about Charlottesville.

On a post-Charlottesville blog post, Cantwell discussed his conversion from libertarianism to the alt-right. As immigration became a leading news story in America and Europe, he writes, Lew Rockwell gave a talk titled Open Borders Are an Assault on Private Property. From here, I decided to readHans Hermann Hoppes Democracy: The God That Failed. From these, I realized that the libertine vision of a free society was quite distorted. The society we sought actually would provide far more order and control than [would] modern democratic governments. It would encourage more socially conservative behavior and less compulsory association. Just when I thought I had everything figured out, I was once again reminded of my naivety.

Cantwell continues, People should be free to exercise complete control over their own person and property. If blacks are committing crimes, or Jews are spreading communism, discriminating against them is the right of any property owner. The fact that he may or may not miss out on good blacks or Jews is a risk he takes, and the merit of his decisions will be proven out by the market. Since a libertarian society would permit this, it seemed foolish that I should be compelled to support a democratic government policy which did not It was only after all this that Donald Trump seemed worth taking seriously.

A friend of mine who is libertarian suggests that other libertarians never liked Cantwell, and that he was simply using libertarianism as a shield for expressing a lot of disturbing viewpoints. Despite the negative stereotypes, casting yourself as libertarian still has some cache. Celebrities like Bill Maher and Vince Vaughn have identified with the labelwhich seems to be a way of expressing some conservative viewpoints while still supporting the decriminalization of marijuana and distancing yourself from social conservatism. Libertarians wont continue to enjoy this status if the alt-right is allowed to tarnish their philosophy, too.

Over at HotAir, Taylor Millard says that conservatives and libertarians need to purge white supremacists. If they are smart, they will follow his advice.

Here is the original post:
The Insidious Libertarian-to-Alt-Right Pipeline - Daily Beast

Gazette staff

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

JANESVILLEThe Rock County Libertarian Party is running a school supply drive throughout this week to help stock local classroom teachers' desks.

The group, which is running the event under the name Supplies Party, has left donation drop boxes at four locations in Janesville. Organizers say the drive is for school items more specific for teachers use.

Its list suggests people can donate to the drive such items as staplers, staples, pens, permanent markers and dry-erase markers, rubber bands, Kleenex, file folders, and scissors.

Supplies collected in the drive will be given to teachers Janesville schools and other schools throughout Rock County, depending on how many the group collects.

Supplies Party's donation boxes will be at the following locations in Janesville through Saturday:

--Toppers Pizza, 2201 Humes Road, Janesville

--Exclusive Company, 1259 Milton Ave., Janesville

--Noble Knight Gaming, 2242 Kennedy Road, Janesville

--Alkali Tattoo, 16 S. Main St., Janesville

The drive caps off with a donation day from noon to 2 p.m. at Culver's restaurant, 645 Midland Road, Janesville.

Last updated: 4:16 pm Tuesday, August 22, 2017

2017 GazetteXtra, a division of Bliss Communications, Inc.

See the original post here:
Rock County Libertarian Party collecting school supplies for teachers - Janesville Gazette

These are tough times to be a Republican in California. Last year Donald Trump won the lowest percentage of the presidential vote any Republican has registered since 1912, when GOP nominee William Howard Taft was denied a ballot spot (Progressive candidate Theodore Roosevelt narrowly defeated Democrat Woodrow Wilson). Thats right: Famous Republican losers like Alf Landon and Barry Goldwater won a higher percentage of the vote than Trump did.

Democrats enjoy supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature, and a 3914 margin in U.S. House seats. All statewide constitutional officers are Democrats. One U.S. Senate seat was last held by Republicans in 1992, and the other in 1968. In the most recent top two primary that promotes candidates to the general election regardless of party (an innovation, by the way, sponsored by the last GOP governor and lieutenant governor of the state), no Republican made the cut for the open U.S. Senate seat.The GOP percentage of registered voters has now sunk to a dismal 25.9 percent, nearly 20 percent below the Democratic share.

Youd think, given this environment, that California Republicans would be retooling their message in order to appeal to their state, and that, indeed, is what California Assembly GOP Leader Chad Mayes has been doing. Heres how he most recently described his partys challenge:

Republicans have a choice: We can remain in a state of denial and continue to lose elections, influence and relevance, or we can move forward boldly to articulate and apply our principles in a way that resonates with a changing California. To me, the choice is clear.

As Assembly Republican leader, I have built genuine relationships with groups that we have ignored for decades, championed policies that reach out to nontraditional Republican groups, and communicated more broadly than any Republican leader in the last generation.

But one of Mayess outreach efforts has spawned a conservative revolt, and demonstrated once again that Republicans in this and many other states would rather be right ideologically than take political risks. Taking the advice of most California business leaders not to mention big majorities in the polls Mayes led a small group of Assembly Republicans in July into a deal to support extension of the states landmark cap-and-trade system for addressing greenhouse-gas emissions.

Almost exactly a month later, the board of the state Republican Party took the unusual step of calling for Mayes to step down as Assembly leader.

Harmeet Dhillon, one of two of the states representatives to the Republican National Committee, said Mayes had failed to protect the integrity of the partys position on taxation and overregulation in California.

Thirteen members of the party board, including Chairman Jim Brulte, voted in favor of the motion calling on the Yucca Valley Republican to resign as caucus leader. Seven voted against, and there was one abstention.

Only the GOP Assembly Caucus has the power to remove Mayes as leader, and late yesterday he survived a no-confidence motion, which failed by three votes. But challenges to him will continue.

Why are California conservatives engaging in a purge effort when their party is so weak? Well, thats what ideologues do, of course; left or right (though especially the latter), they believe fidelity to the Cause is always the key to electoral success, and more valuable than electoral success in the final analysis. And there is, of course, a legacy of hard-core conservatism in the state that dates back at least to Barry Goldwaters nomination-clinching win over Nelson Rockefeller in the 1964 California primary. One of the key figures in that Goldwater campaign, Ronald Reagan, went on to serve two terms as governor and then to embody the culmination of the conservative movements long drive to power by becoming president. His many compromises with principle and with the hated Democratic opposition in both Sacramento and Washington have long been forgotten or ignored by those who burn candles to his memory.

More immediately, many California Republicans, like their counterparts in other states, fear the wrath of the base voters who have become fiercely loyal to the culture warrior and media basher in the White House.The leading GOP candidates for governor in 2018 who will be struggling to achieve a general-election spot in a field dominated by well-funded Democrats like Gavin Newsom, John Chiang, and Antonio Villaraigosa are lining up to pledge allegiance to Donald Trump, the least popular GOP presidential candidate in more than a century. Its not like Trump is getting some sort of strange second wind of popularity in the Golden State: According to Gallup, his most recent job-approval rating in California was at 30 percent, a bit below his 2016 electoral share.

Its a sad state of affairs for the party that won nine of ten presidential elections in California from 1952 through 1988. Obviously the states demographics have changed massively since those days, and the California GOPs reputation as a white and anti-immigrant party has been especially damaging in a state that now has (according to the 2016 exit polls) a nonwhite majority of voters. Rallying around Donald Trump seems an unlikely first step toward a GOP revival.

California Republicans arent alone in experiencing internecine warfare, however. The ClintonSanders primary fight was especially savage in the Golden State, and has spilled over into an endless battle over the state party chairmanship. The candidate of the Berniecrats, Kimberly Ellis, seems to have narrowly lost to a more conventional pol Clinton supporter, Eric Bauman. But having exhausted internal challenges based on allegations of a rigged process, Ellis is now threatening litigation. And there is a parallel fight among California Democrats over single-payer health-care legislation.

The 2018 midterms in California could be even wilder than usual. But make no mistake: The GOP is in the greatest peril of disaster.

Nobody was surprised the president cut loose at a rally in Phoenix. But he showed he cant drop his losing argument.

The vice-president has a different foreign-policy model: simpler, more rugged, with distinct homoerotic overtones.

At the worst possible time, relations between the president and the leader of his party in the Senate have become frosty, distant and even combative.

According to reports, the editor thought he was emailing with Steve Bannon.

Hawaii senator Brian Schatz is preparing a bill that would allow all Americans to buy into Medicaid, regardless of their income level.

Having fallen to a historic low point, California Republicans are still fighting over conservative purity and loyalty to an unpopular president.

Attorneys for Williams maintain his innocence.

GOP infighting on full display.

The New York staple will continue to publish online.

A total of 16 companies and people have been targeted in the U.S.s latest move to squeeze Pyongyang.

But the Executive branch is still doing damage.

The administration may be forced by the courts to cancel protection for Dreamers. So it could be time for a grand bargain to get border-wall funding.

A large swath of GOP voters now identify as Trump Republicans and see loyalty to the president as the one litmus test for true conservatism.

All ships will have a one-day operational pause this week after the U.S.S. John S. McCain collided with an oil tanker.

House Speaker lies his head off on national television, nobody says anything.

It would be natural for the president to follow up on controlled remarks about Afghanistan with an uninhibited base-feeding frenzy the next night.

A long-harbored conservative dream the dismantling of the administrative state is taking place under Secretary Carson.

A high-speed train hit another train parked at the station in Upper Darby.

He thinks asking lawmakers to hold Trump accountable would amount to a partisan hack-fest.

More here:
Endangered California Republicans Feuding Over Ideology - New York Magazine

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional Republicans, seeking to address the complaints of small businesses, are floating changes to their controversial proposal to eliminate business tax deductions for debt interest payments, business lobbyists said on Tuesday.

A top U.S. Republican on tax policy acknowledged that modifications are in the works, but did not provide details.

The debt interest proposal, long seen by Republican policymakers as necessary to help drive economic growth, is backed by large companies with ready access to equity financing that they could substitute for debt if eliminating the interest deduction made issuing debt too costly. Debt-dependent small business owners, farmers and ranchers don't have that luxury.

As Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration slog ahead with a push to overhaul the U.S. tax code, a key task is figuring out how to resolve conflicting groups' priorities, with business debt interest a clear example.

The tax code has not been overhauled since 1986, partly because reconciling these conflicts can be so difficult.

"We've asked businesses large and small to look at that, test drive it and give us back their feedback," House of Representatives tax committee Chairman Kevin Brady said in remarks at an event in Louisville, Kentucky on Tuesday, without offering specifics about the modified proposal.

His staff at the committee had no comment.

Businesses lobbyists said the panel's lawmakers have quietly agreed to focus on exemptions for small businesses, including farmers and ranchers, and an exemption for land.

Lawmakers have also discussed a possible partial elimination of the interest deduction, with an exemption for existing debt, or eliminating the deduction only for businesses deemed to have an excessive amount of debt, according to lobbyists.

Brady is one of the "Big Six" negotiators from Congress and the Trump administration who are guiding the tax reform debate.

At the Louisville event, he described rolling back the business interest deduction as a "trade-off" for another proposal to accelerate expensing, which would allow businesses to write off investments in plants and equipment more quickly.

He said net interest deduction is one of a number of tax breaks that lawmakers are looking to eliminate to help pay for lower business tax rates. Republicans say tax cuts will help drive annual U.S. economic growth above the 3 percent mark.

Independent analysts say that eliminating the interest deduction would raise more than $1 trillion in federal revenues.

Republicans want to cut the corporate income tax rate to 20-25 percent from 35 percent. But they have been hard-pressed to pay for such a cut since jettisoning a border adjusted import tax that would have raised more than $1 trillion.

Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Cynthia Osterman

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As tax debate heats up, Republicans tweak business interest plan - Reuters

There is a saying: Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

In 2016, first Republicans and then national voters were fooled badly by Donald Trump. He claimed superiority in moral clarity, honesty, dedication to conservative principles, policy knowledge and management skill. Next to him, he said, accomplished lawmakers were failures, serious conservative thinkers were uncommitted, and dignified opponents were low energy, weak and tired. (One can only imagine what he would have said of a candidate Ronald Reagan.)

Nobody knows the (political) system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it, he told voters, many of whom were rightly weary of arrogant and overreaching government. He promised Americans, We will have so much winning if I get elected that you may get bored with the winning.

So 60 million Americans some enthusiastically, others less so voted him into the White House. Then he began to show who Donald Trump really is.

He had promised to drain the swamp of Washington corruption, but he put his children and cronies in powerful government offices, while the Trump Organizations rakes in millions from taxpayers and special interests.

He had bragged of his honesty, but now he lies about even the most mundane of facts, such as the size of his inauguration crowd or his electoral victory.

He had declared himself to be a committed conservative, but he intends to add to the national debt, ignores the fiscal crises facing Social Security and Medicare, offers government subsidies and favors to businesses he likes and threatens businesses he dislikes, dismisses reports that Russia Americas top geopolitical foe for 70 years is trying to undermine the nations political institutions, discounts hard-won international agreements that have contributed to Americas strength and prosperity, and vows new expansions of presidential and federal power.

He had claimed great knowledge of public policy, but he was recently astonished to learn that health care policy is so complicated and he offers no serious guidance to lawmakers on improving health care or reforming taxes or government process.

He had touted his management skills, but his appointees include unqualifieds, incompetents and embarrassments, and his own announcements and decisions alternate between irrational impulsiveness and weak indecisiveness.

He had promised foreign and defense policies so strong that nobody, nobody is going to mess with us, but he kowtows to the autocratic ruler of Russia, while world leaders friends and foes alike dismiss him as a dimwitted blowhard. And so do a growing number of political leaders at home, Republicans and Democrats alike.

Now, this president who once bragged of his moral clarity tells us that there were some very fine people among the neo-Nazis, Klansmen and other white supremacists who rallied in Charlottesville, Va. To be sure, he also chastised the KKK and neo-Nazi movements in remarks he read from a teleprompter. Still, there were some very fine people wearing swastikas and carrying torches. This from a guy who previously bragged that his celebrity lets him get away with groping women, and who repeatedly derided American war heroes and their families.

This is not winning. This is abhorrent. And were only seven months into his presidency. Imagine what lies ahead.

Deep down, most Republicans must know this is a disaster. Despite his claims of superiority during the campaign, its now clear he lacks even basic levels of morality, wisdom or understanding of governance let alone the levels necessary for a president.

Donald Trump fooled Republicans and other voters in 2016. The question now is whether they will let him continue to do so.

Some may, rationalizing that Democrats do and say bad things too. But they do it too is no justification for such failure. If Republicans cant maintain their partys basic dignity, then they have no authority to govern.

Other defenders might say, Theres nothing Trump can do to satisfy Democrats and the press. Perhaps its true that Republicans have to work twice as hard to get half as far, but thats hardly a reason to empower someone who works one-tenth as hard and expects 10 times the adulation.

Still other Republicans may profess, Hes better than having the Democrats in charge. But every new humiliation and every Republican capitulation to Trumps ignorance and arrogance increase the likelihood of future, enduring Democratic victory.

Besides, there are worse things than political losses. The worst is the loss of ones principles. If Republicans are willing to surrender those to Donald Trump, then what else will they do? As a wise man once asked, What benefits a person to gain the whole world and lose his soul?

The question now is whether responsible Republicans will stand up and declare that Trumps performance is unacceptable. Will they be loyal to their principles, or to him?

To borrow some words from the GOPs past, Republicans have reached a time for choosing. They need to choose well. No less than the nations future is at stake.

Thomas A. Firey is a Washington County native.

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Thomas A. Firey: Republicans' time for choosing - Herald-Mail Media